ORNITHOLOGY 



45 



A phylo- 

 genetic 

 51 heme 



(T Families or genera usuallj referred to the former plainly 

 have sum.: features in common, the few Families or genera 

 that have been clubbed together in the latter make an 

 assemblage that is quite artificial, though it may be freely 

 owned that with our present knowledge it is impossible to 

 determine the natural alliances of all of them. 1 



That our knowledge is also too imperfect to enable 

 systematists to compose a phylogeny of Birds, even of the 

 ('urinate Subclass, and draw out their pedigree, ought to 

 be sufficiently evident. The uncertainty which still pre- 

 ticable. vails among the best-informed ornithologists as to the 

 respective origin of the Ratitse and Carinatas is in itself a 

 proof of that fact, and in regard to some groups much less 

 widely differentiated the same thing occurs. We can 

 point to some forms which seem to be collaterally ancestral 

 (if svtch a phrase may be allowed), and among them 

 perhaps some of those which have been referred to the 

 group *' Alt ctoridt s " just mentioned, and from a considera- 

 tion of their Geographical Distribution and especially 

 Isolation it will be obvious that they are the remnants of 

 a very ancient and more generalized stock which in various 

 parts of the world have become more or less specialized. 

 The very case of the New-Caledonian Kagu (Rhinockettts), 

 combining features which occasionally recall the Sun- 

 Bittern (Eurypyga), and again present an unmistakable 

 likeness to the Limicolse or the Rallidse, shews that it is 

 without any very near relation on the earth, and, if con- 

 venience permitted, would almost justify us in placing it in 

 a group apart from any other, though possessing some 

 characteristics in common with several. 



It is anything but the desire of the present writer to 

 invent a new arrangement of Birds. Such acquaintance 

 as he possesses with the plans which have been already 

 propounded warns him that until a great deal more labour 

 has been expended, and its results made clearly known, 

 no general scheme of Classification will deserve to be 

 regarded as final. Nevertheless in the best of modern 

 systems there are some points which, as already hinted, 

 seem to be well established, while in them there are also 

 some dispositions and assignments which he is as yet 

 unable to accept, while he knows that he is not alone in 

 his mistrust of them, and he thinks it his duty here to 

 mention them in the hope that thereby attention may be 

 further directed to them, and his doubts either dispelled or 

 established — it matters not which. The most convenient 

 way of bringing them to the notice of the reader will per- 

 haps be by considering in succession the different groups 

 set forth by the latest systematist of any authority — Mr 

 Sclater — a sketch of whose method has been above given. 

 Cryptwri. If we trust to the results at which Prof. Huxley arrived, 

 there can be little doubt as to the propriety of beginning 

 the Carinate Subclass with his Dromseognathse, the Cryptwri 

 of Illiger and others, or Tinamous, for their resemblance 

 to the Ratitse is not to be disputed ; but it must be borne 

 in mind that nothing whatever is known of their mode of 

 development, and that this may, when made out, seriously 

 modify their position relatively to another group, the 

 normal Anseres, in which the investigations of Cuvier and 

 L'Herminier have already shewn that there is some 

 resemblance to the Ratitse as regards the ossification of 

 the sternum. It will be for embryologists to determine 

 whether this asserted resemblance has any real meaning ; 

 but of the sufficient standing of the Crypturi as an Order 

 there can hardly be a question. 



1 Heterogeneous as is the group as left by the latest systematist, it 

 is nothing to its state when first founded by Illiger in IS 1 1 ; for it 

 then contained in addition the genera Olareolu and (Vmi/«i<, but the 

 lasl was restored to its true place among the Anseres by Temminck. 

 The A lectrides of Dumeril have nothing in common with the .1 

 of Illiger, and the latter is a name most unfortunately chosen, since 

 the group so called does not include any Cock-like Bud. 



We have seen that Prof. Huxley would derive all other 

 existing Carinate Birds from the Dromseognathse; but of 

 course it must be understood in this, as in every other 

 similar case, that it is not thereby implied that the modern 

 representatives of the Droimvognathous type (namely, the 

 Tinamous) stand in the line of ancestry. 



Under the name Impennes we have a group of Birds, the / 

 Penguins, smaller even than the last, and one over which 

 until lately systematists have been sadly at fault ; for, 

 though we as yet know little if anything definite as to 

 their embryology, no one, free from bias, can examine any 

 member of the group, either externally or internally, 

 without perceiving how completely different it is from an} 

 others of the Carinate division. There is perhaps scarcely 

 a feather or a bone which is not diagnostic, and nearly 

 every character hitherto observed points to a low morpho- 

 logical rank. It may even be that the clothing of Hesper- 

 ornis was not very dissimilar to the "plumage" which 

 now covers the Impennes, and the title of an Order can 

 hardly be refused to them. 



The group known as Pygopodes has been often asserted i 

 to be closely akin to the Impennes, and we have seen that ; "" 1 ,lu '"' 

 Brandt combined the two under the name of Urinatores, '' 

 while Mr Sclater thinks the Pygopodes "seem to forma 

 natural transition between" the Gulls and the Penguins. 

 The affinity of the Alcidse or Auks (and through them the 

 1 >ivers or Colymbidae) to the Culls may be a matter beyond 

 doubt, and there appears to be ground for considering 

 them to be the degraded offspring of the former ; but to 

 the present writer it appears questionable whether the 

 Grebes, Podicipedidse, have any real affinity to the two 

 Families with which they are usually associated, and this 

 is a point deserving of more attention on the part of 

 morphologists than it has hitherto received. Under the 

 name of Gavise the Gulls and their close allies form a very 

 natural section, but it probably hardly merits the rank of 

 an Order more than the Pygopodes, for its relations to the 

 large and somewhat multiform though very natural gi 

 Limicolse have to be taken into consideration. Prof. 

 Parker long ago observed (Trans. Zool. Society, v. p. 150) 

 that characters exhibited by Gulls when young, but lost 

 by them when adult, are found in certain Plovers at all 

 ages, and hence it would appear that the Gavise are but 

 more advanced Limicolse. The Limicoline genera I) mm .is 

 and Chionis have many points of resemblance to the 

 Lands, ; and on the whole the proper inference would 

 seem to be that the Limicolse, or something very like 

 them, form the parent-stock whence have descended the 

 Gavise, from which or from their ancestral forms the Alcidse 

 have proceeded as a degenerate branch. If this hypothesis 

 be correct, the association of these three groups would 

 constitute an Order, of which the highest Family would 

 perhaps be Otididse, the Bustards; but until further 

 research shews whether the view can be maintained it is 

 not worth while to encumber nomenclature by inventing a 

 new name for the combination. On the other hand the 

 Petrels, which form the group Tubinares, would seem for TuUnares. 

 several reasons to be perfectly distinct from the Gavise and 

 their allies, and possibly will have to rank as an Order. 



Considerable doubt has already been expressed as to the ' 

 existence of an Order Alectorides, which no one can regard ' 

 as a natural group, and it has just been proposed I i 

 retransfer to the Limicolse one of the Families, Otididse, 

 kept in it by Mr Sclater. Another Family included in it 

 by its founder is Cariamidse, the true place of which has 

 long been a puzzle to systematizers. The present writer 

 is inclined to think that those who have urged its affinity 

 to the Accipitres, and among them taxOnomers starting 

 fnun buses so opposite as Sundevull and Prof. Parker, 

 have more nearly hit the mark, and accordingly would 



•Alecto- 

 ides." 



